Nora sat at the kitchen table chewing on her bottom lip. She clacked away at the buttons on her calculator, her eyebrows tightly knitted in focus. Every so often her right hand would stop and hover over the calculator while she'd jot down some numbers with her left hand. She picked up her notes and examined them for the fifth time. She hadn't made a mistake. She groaned and pressed her face in her hands. Money would be tight again this month. It wasn't yet noon and already the trials of the day were wearing her down. She hadn't even brought herself to open the post that still sat in a neat collection on the doormat. She was finding it harder to do anything of late. Even the simple things like vacuuming the floors and brushing her long chocolate coloured hair felt painfully taxing. The only thing she could find the energy to do was go into work 5 days a week at a little café in town. The hours were always long and the manager a cruel woman who enjoyed making fun of her. She hated it, but as the only living relative of her kid brother she didn't have much of a choice.

She heard the sound of a key scrapping into a lock, and the front door of the flat swung open. "Hey Nora!" Her brother yelled as he came barging in with a poorly concealed grin on his face. Her brother was an immensely gifted child and even at the young age of fourteen he was setting his sights on Oxford or Cambridge. Sometimes it seemed the only thing he wasn't good at was hiding his emotions. Nora sighed and leaned back in her chair, "What is it, Benjamin?"

"Nothing." He smiled sweetly, hands behind his back as he edged towards her, his straight face breaking into a smirk. He stepped closer and whipped out a card and a small gift box from behind his back and burst out into song "Happy Birthday to you! Haaappy Bir-"

"Oh, God, oh Jesus Ben stop, no singing, no-"

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR NORA! Haaappy birthday to you!" He plopped the gift and card onto the table over her notes. Nora couldn't help but smile as she pulled him into a tight squeeze and kissed his cheek, emitting a quick "gross" from under Benjamin's breath. Nora examined the box. She hadn't expected anything at all. She opened that card first. Their parents had taught them it was bad manners not to. It was bright purple and glittery and emblazoned with the number "18." Nora laughed "Did you have to go for the one with the number on it? Makes me feel old."

"You are old."

"Thanks."

"Now open your present." Nora pinched it off the table between thumb and forefinger, giving it a little shake. She and her brother didn't have money. She didn't know what it could possibly be. She lifted the lid and gasped, her hand flying to her face, "Ben, you didn't…how did you…?" She picked out the sparkling golden sunflower pendent and clipped it around her neck. There was nothing she loved more on the earth than sunflowers. "Happy Birthday, Sis." He said in that serious voice that was only recently starting to deepen, reminding her of the man he was becoming.

Nora shook back her tears of thanks, rubbing her eyes with her knuckles and laughing. She was prone to getting too emotional too quickly nowadays. That or feeling nothing at all. "I'm not going to ask you where you got the money for that." Benjamin held up his hands as if in surrender, "I didn't steal it, I promise! Me and the guys just had a bit of a whip around that's all."

"Right," Nora smiled, resting her hand on her chin, "I'm just glad you seem a little more chipper after last night. You looked half dead this morning." It seemed in an instant that a storm had been tossed across Benjamin's features, the ghost of his smile stuck dead on his face. "Yeah," He mumbled, quickly looking down "I…I had a bad dream." Nora swallowed hard and asked, "About mom and dad?"

"No," Ben said, his voice expressing a little relief, "I was up reading late again before bed. I read the news about that cruise ship that came into harbour not far from here. Left Maine with 19 children aboard, rocked up here with none." Nora grimaced. "Ew. Sounds sinister."

"Tell me about it. You know when I read Dracula how I was always creeped out by that scene where he comes to England stowed away on a ship and kills everyone on board, picking them off one by one, letting them lapse into madness and anxiety? I had a dream I was on that ship. Only, it wasn't a vampire that was on the ship with us, it was a…"

"A what?"

"It was nothing. It was only a dream." He didn't tell her about the clown. He didn't want to seem silly.

"Hang on," Nora began, "Aren't you meant to be at school?." Benjamin rolled his eyes so violently he thought they might have rolled straight out of his head. "Firstly it's the summer holidays, and secondly it's a Sunday. Jeez Nora, get your shit together." He teased. Nora winced and sighed with exasperation, "Oh. I know."

"Right I'm heading back out, the guys are waiting outside."

"Cool, you be careful yeah?"

"I will be." He picked up his rucksack and made his way to the door. He stopped, hesitated, "I love you Nora, you know that right?"

"Of course." She smiled, fiddling with her new necklace, "I love you more."